The thing is, I still don't really like Elektra. But when Rucka is writing her, whether it's here or in the Ultimate version, I'm interested in the stories and the characters, and the fact that I really couldn't care much about whether the character lives or dies doesn't enter into the equation much. Rucka seems to be doing his best to reshape the character, whether it's a revamp of her origin in Ultimate Daredevil & Elektra or a sort of reverse brainwashing/training that seems to be going on here, and who knows, maybe he'll be able to make her more interesting to me in the end. He certainly does a number on The Hand in this issue, making them out to be a lot more scary than they've ever been before.
For as long as I can remember, The Hand have been Marvel's generic ninjas who disintegrate when they're beaten. They haven't ever seemed terribly frightening, as they existed largely to allow for Frank Miller or those who followed him to do really cool crowd scenes where the hero beat up a dozen ninjas in an impressive display of super-powers or martial arts prowess. Rucka has created a more interesting and balanced foil for Elektra, a group of The Hand that actually seems as dangerous as we've always been told it could be, able to slip invisibly into anywhere they want to go and kill ruthlessly, effectively and silently, even moreso than their perfect pupil Elektra.
I like that the story so far is exploring areas of The Hand and their foes The Chaste that Miller left relatively untouched. The simple one word names that The Hand assassins have is a nice flipside to The Chaste, and the revelations about Elektra's sensei give her martial arts ability and her qualification to retrain Elektra a lot more credence. My only complaint so far is that Rucka's story of Elektra's redemption seems to be moving along a little slowly, if you consider it to have begun in the previous story arc, but there's nothing specific I can point to and say "There's where it could have been tightened up." Perhaps I'm just impatient to get done with the rebuilding and reshaping and see what Elektra's new status quo is going to be, unless this uncertainty and passivity is going to be it.
While the previous issue had guest artwork, Carlos Pagulayan has returned for this arc, and I'm glad to see him back. Pagulayan's work has not really blown me away, but it is solid enough, and his storytelling skill in particular makes the book clear and easy to read. His designs for The Hand, doing away with the black pajama look and instead subsituting a quasi-mystical robe look, is a big part of their new dangerous look and feel.
So, as I said earlier, I don't much like Elektra the character. Despite that, however, I'm finding the story of her redemption fairly interesting so far, and the promise of a confrontation with this new and more dangerous Hand intriguing as well. And this was also the first issue where Greg Horn abandoned his cheesecake tendencies and provided a cover that actually fit the story inside, which was an unexpected bonus.
